Lee Choo Neo (; 7 September 1895 – 7 September 1947) was the first female medical doctor to practice in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. Her father, Lee Hoon Leong, was a merchant of Hakka descent. Her mother was her father's second wife, Mak Hup Sin, who was of Cantonese descent. Lee Choo Neo was also the aunt of

Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (born Harry Lee Kuan Yew; 16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean politician who ruled as the first Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. He is widely recognised ...

, Singapore's first Prime Minister; his father was her younger half-brother, Lee Chin Koon.

History

Lee attended Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Raffles Girls’ School. In 1911, Lee Choo Neo became the first Straits Chinese girl to earn the Senior Cambridge Certificate, and in 1918, she graduated from King Edward VII College of Medicine, Singapore. She originally served as an assistant surgeon, overseeing two women's wards at the General Hospital. Lee Choo Neo married Teo Koon Lim at 114 Emerald Hill on 21 September 1923 and had a son named Lionel Teo Cheng Ann and two daughters namely Eileen Teo Cheng Sim and Winnie Teo Cheng Kim. After several years in the government service, she resigned and followed her husband to

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

who had business there. However, in 1930, she went back to Singapore and opened her own clinic ''Lee Dispensary'' on Bras Basah Road, which specialized in maternity care. In addition to her medical work, she was a founder of the Chinese Ladies' Association of Malaya (later called the Chinese Women's Association), founded in 1915, which raised funds for war, taught domestic skills, introduced outdoor sports, and sponsored a rescue home for at-risk women. She served as the Association's honorary secretary for many years. In 1925 she and two other women were appointed to the Chinese Marriage Committee, which was investigating the need for laws to govern Chinese marriage and divorce in the Straits Settlements. The Chinese Marriage Committee found that women wanted an end to

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

, while men did not; their findings were a preliminary to the 1961 passage of the Women's Charter, which outlawed polygamy. Lee Choo Neo died on 7 September 1947, and her grave is located in Singapore in the Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery. The

Singapore Women's Hall of Fame The Singapore Women's Hall of Fame is a virtual hall of fame that honors and documents the lives of historically significant women in Singapore. The hall is the creation of the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (SCWO), and grew out of an ...

was created in 2014, and Lee Choo Neo was inducted into it that same year, under the category "Health."

References

Singaporean people of Hakka descent People from Dabu Singaporean gynaecologists Singaporean people of Cantonese descent Singaporean women medical doctors Peranakan people in Singapore Singaporean women's rights activists 1895 births Singaporean people of Chinese descent 1947 deaths Raffles Girls' Secondary School alumni 20th-century Singaporean physicians Lee family (Singapore) 20th-century women physicians {{singapore-med-bio-stub